Worlds away from Home
by Chad Rains
Summary: Worlds away from Home explains a real world college students escapades as he is thrown in the middle of the Code Lyoko Universe.
1. Chapter 1: Just a Normal Day

Notes: Due to formatting restrictions, it is difficult to put a linking url in this story. Let's hope this one works:

Fig. 1: (bleh. Just visit centrafuse(dot)com for a mess of screenshots)

Chapter 1: "Just a normal day"

_Intro: Let's just introduce our new character here, shall we? His name is Chad. He is 18 years of age and is currently a college student. He is quite a lot like Jeremie. Is called Einstein a lot amongst his friends and has a very similar personality. He is approximately 6 feet tall, black hair, glasses, is wearing a blue t-shirt and blue jeans and clean, white shoes.. _

_In our first view, we are in a Volkswagen New Beetle with our main character in the driver's seat. In place of the factory radio, we see a small video screen (See Fig.1 above). As he stops at a traffic light, he quickly presses a few buttons on the screen and soon "Code Lyoko – A World without Danger" starts playing. With one extra click, it is back on the main screen. The traffic light changes to green and he drives off. He proceeds to drive down a few quiet streets lined with small houses till he arrives at his destination. _

_Our next view is on a quaint suburban home in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We see it is in the middle of the fall season as plenty of multi-colored leaves have fallen and have blanketed the ground. In the driveway we see a white minivan parked up by the garage. In a few moments, we see the navy blue Volkswagen pull into the driveway just by the front porch. The engine cuts out and we see our main character climb out of the vehicle. He reaches into the back seat and pulls out his backpack. He closes the door and presses a button located on his keychain remote. The lights on the car flash and the horn makes a quick chirp. He proceeds to walk up the front steps and into the front door. He looks around and notices his mom working on the computer in the adjacent room._

Chad: "Hi Mom. I'm home."

Mom: "Hi hon. Lunch is on the kitchen counter."

_He makes his way into the kitchen and notices there is pizza on the counter. He grabs a plate and proceeds upstairs. He enters his room and closes the door behind him. He sets the plate of pizza on his bed along with his backpack. He sits down at the computer and grabs the TV remote and presses a button causing the TV to switch to a blank screen with "VIDEO" in the corner. A few folders later, some previously recorded episodes of Code Lyoko are found and with a simple double-click; the selected episode appears on the television. He shuts of the computer monitor, sits down on his bed and proceeds to eat while watching Code Lyoko._

_After he finishes eating, he places the empty plate on the floor and lies down on the bed while continuing to watch the episode. Within a few moments, he is out like a light._


	2. Chapter 2: An 'Odd' Malfunction Pt1

Chapter 2: "An 'Odd' Malfunction Pt.1"

_Our first view in this chapter is in the sewers as we follow Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi to the factory. As they start to cross the bridge, Ulrich fishes the cell phone out of his pocket and proceeds to call Jeremie._

Ulrich: "Jeremie, where are you? We need you at the factory."

_We are now back in the library where we see Jim watching over Jeremie._

Jeremie: whispering "Jim caught me guys. You will have to start without me."

Ulrich: back on the bridge "But How?"

Jeremie: "Yumi knows the virtualization program. She can virtualize you, Odd, and Aelita until I get there. "

Ulrich: "Ok. But please hurry."

_Ulrich hangs up and slides the phone back in his pocket. Flash forward to the control room._

Aelita: "Where is Jeremie?"

Ulrich: "Jeremie got caught by Jim. He said to start without him. He said you could virtualize us Yumi."

Yumi: "But what about last time?"

Ulrich: "He wouldn't have said anything if he didn't trust you."

Yumi: "…Ok. Get to the scanner room. I will start the process."

_The other three nod, enter the elevator and quickly make their way to the scanner room. In a few moments, all three have stepped into the scanners. Back in the control room, Yumi is reading over Jeremie's book full of notes and typing various commands into the super computer._

Yumi: "Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Odd, Transfer Aelita…Scanner Ulrich, Scanner Odd, Scanner Aelita…Virtualization!"

_The three arrive on Lyoko simultaneously. They arrive in the Forest region._

Yumi: "The activated tower is about 20 degrees North."

Odd: "Any sign of any monsters? Or is XANA slacking off again?"

Yumi: "There's nothing on the screen. All looks clear to the tower."

_Then out of nowhere, a large laser "wall" came out of nowhere and knocked Odd and Ulrich flat on their back. They soon realize this could only come from a megatank. As they quickly glance around, they find the magatank rolling in fast._

Ulrich: "Where did that come from Yumi?"

Yumi: "It's not showing on the map. I don't know where it is. You are down to 20 life points each. Be Careful!"

_But before they could really get their bearings, Odd had already been hit a second time and was de-virtualized. Realizing that they were in trouble, Yumi only had one choice left. She proceeded to flip through Jeremies notes angrily and stopped on one page. Following the notes, she proceeded to type commands into the super computer which started up a minute long timer on the screen. She quickly got up and entered the elevator and proceeded to the scanner room. There she meets up with Odd._

Yumi: "I'm going in."

Odd: "What?"

_But before they could exchange any more camaraderie, Yumi had already stepped into a scanner; the door closed and had already started the virtualization process. Confused, Odd proceeds to the control room and sits at the computer to keep an eye out for the team._

Odd: "Ulrich, Yumi is on her way."

_But before he could look to see where she was, one of her fans appeared out of nowhere and hit the megatank head on in the target right before it was able to fully charge a laser attack._

Odd: "Nevermind."

Aelita: "I see the tower."

_The three head towards the activated tower. As they arrive, Ulrich and Yumi stop short while Aelita proceeds on._

Odd: "Ok. I'm going to materialize you now. Jeremie's notes are here."

_Odd proceeds to read through a page of Jeremie's notes regarding materialization and cautiously types some commands into the super computer._

Odd: "Materialize Yumi, Materialize Ulrich."

_Back in the scanner room, we see all three scanner's open. Yumi and Ulrich emerge from two of them, slightly weakened. The 3rd appears empty from a distance. Yumi and Ulrich approach._

Yumi: "Aelita? Are you ok?"

Odd: "Aelita is still on Lyoko. She just deactivated the tower."

Ulrich: "What? Then who is in the 3rd scanner?"


	3. Chapter 3: An 'Odd' Malfunction Pt2

Chapter 3: "An 'Odd' Malfunction Pt.2"

_Soon Jeremie arrives to the control room._

Jeremie: "Odd? Where are the others? Are they ok?"

Odd: "Aelita already deactivated the tower. She is still on Lyoko, but I managed to Materialize Ulrich and Yumi."

Yumi: "Uh. We have a problem here."

Jeremie: As Him and Odd proceed to the elevator "I hope you didn't mess up anything."

_Odd and Jeremie arrive to the scanner room and notice Ulrich and Yumi standing in front of an open scanner still waiting for the rolling steam to clear. As they approach Yumi and Ulrich, another scanner opens and Aelita steps out._

Aelita: "When I noticed no one was at the computer, I materialized myself. What's going on?"

_As the steam finally clears, we notice someone huddled in the bottom of the scanner._

Person: just waking up "Wha? Where am I?"

Jeremie: "Umm. Where did you come from?"

Person: listens to Jeremie's voice "Jeremie?"

Jeremie: "Yes? How do you know my name? And you still didn't tell me where you came from."

_He now sits up but is still sitting in the bottom of the scanner. We soon notice this person as Chad whom we introduced in our first chapter._

Chad: "I don't know how I got here. I'm not from this country let alone this universe. All I know is that I live in America and you guys are not real, but rather are a TV show."

All: "What!"

Chad: "My name is Chad and all of you are Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and of course Aelita."

Jeremie: "But how did you get here?"

Chad: "I don't know. Last I remember I was watching your show. I must have fallen asleep. Next I know I woke up here."

Odd: "…Ok. I'm confused. So we are on a TV show in your universe and somehow I managed to materialize you here."

Jeremie: "What? You materialized him!"

Odd: "Hold on there a minute Einstein. First of all, I was only materializing Ulrich and Yumi. Secondly, I followed your notes to the letter so it had to do with what you had written."

Jeremie: "All my notes are exact and precise. There is nothing wrong with my notes. You must have typed something wrong."

Aelita: "Wait. Do you think it's possible that Odd materializing Ulrich and Yumi while I was deactivating the tower could have done this?"

Jeremie: "Possibly, but I would have to check the materialization program to see if any modifications were made first. But that would only tell me if it was something Odd did or if it was something else. I'm still confused as to how he got here from another universe."

Chad: "I'm confused. So what am I supposed to do now?"

_Everyone looks around at each other with a confused look._

Jeremie: "You can room with me until I can figure this out. Hopefully it won't take too long."

Ulrich: checks his watch "Well, its getting pretty late. We need to get back before Jim finds out we are gone."

Jeremie: "Darn! I forgot about that. Jim is going to kill me when he finds out that I left."

Yumi: "What did you do?"

Jeremie: "Jim left the room for a few minutes and I snuck out. He's probably scouring the campus for me now."

_We flash forward outside the campus as the group sneaks up. In front of the school, we see Jim running from the dorms to the school._

Yumi: "Ok. I'm going home. I will see all of you tomorrow."

Ulrich: "Goodnight Yumi."

Odd: "Ok. Jim is in the school, lets get to the dorm before he comes back."

_We flash forward to inside Jeremies room, facing the door. We see Jeremie and Chad sneaking into the room. Chad proceeds to drop his backpack on the bed to the right side of the room and sits down on the same bed. Jereme sits down at the computer and immediately starts typing away._

Chad: "So what are you doing now?"

Jeremie: "I have to figure out what happened as soon as possible. You obviously can't stay here. I have to find out how to send you back to your own Universe. The super computer brought you here so it should be able to send you back."

Chad: "Ok. But what if it takes a while? Like a month or maybe a year? I'm going to need some kind of public info so I don't have to hide all the time."

_Then suddenly a knock comes at the door._

Jim: from outside the door "Belpois!"

_Chad quickly scoots back into the corner. Just at that time, Jim opens the door. The way the door is mounted, when opened it sits flush against the bed Chad is sitting on so Jim doesn't see him. Jeremie quickly swivels his chair around._

Jim: "Where did you go! You know you had detention!"

Jeremie: "It was an emergency. My dad called and I had to go."

Jim: "Well don't let it happen again Belpois!"

_He leaves and slams the door behind him._

Jeremie: "Phew!"

Chad: "See what I mean? If Jim saw me, he would have asked all kinds of questions that I couldn't explain. I need to get myself into the school."

Jeremie: "I will take you to see Mr. Delmas tomorrow. Hopefully I can convince him to have us share a room."

Chad: "Ok."

_Chad opens up his backpack and pulls out his laptop. It is a black laptop very similar to Jeremie's. He opens it up to a dark color schemed windows desktop with a blank, dark grey background. He pulls up what looks to be winamp which already has a few songs listed. He grabs a pair of headphones out of his backpack, plugs them into his laptop and presses play. He closes the laptop and sets it on the bed in the corner. He slips on the headphones and proceeds to slide under the covers and soon falls asleep. At this point, Jeremie is still working on the computer._

_Next Morning, Our next view is over the computer desk where we see Jeremie slumped over with his head barely resting on the keyboard. He soon stirs, wakes up, quickly sits up, and looks around to see that Chad is still there. Chad is now sitting up in bed, laptop sitting on his lap with headphones still on and plugged in. As he notices Jeremie wake up, he slips his headphones off and down around his neck._

Chad: "Good morning sunshine. I figured you were gonna sleep all day."

Jeremie: "What time is it?"

Chad: takes a quick glance at the laptop screen "Just a few minutes past 7."

Jeremie: "I slept in THAT late? We have to go see Mr. Delmas now. He doesn't stay in that long on Saturday's."

_Chad unplugs his headphones and lays them on the bed. After a few keystrokes, he closes his laptop and slides over to plant his feet on the floor. Meanwhile, Jeremie grabs his laptop and the two proceed out of the room._

_Our next view is out in the courtyard as the two walk out of the dorm. We already see the rest of the group hovering around the bench in the center of the courtyard. Instead of sitting down as he usually does, Jeremie and Chad proceed onwards towards the school to meet Mr. Delmas._

Ulrich: "Hey. Where are you two going?"

Jeremie: "Going to talk to Mr. Delmas."

Yumi: "Why?"

Chad: "Me and Jeremie had a little chat last night and a close call with Jim. We decided I would become a boarder here at Kadic. I'm going to sign up now."

_Jeremie and Chad enter Mr. Delmas' office. Mr. Delmas was just about to pick up his briefcase and leave. As he noticed the two come in, he sat back down._

Mr. Delmas: "Hello Jeremie. Who's your friend?"

Jeremie: "Oh. He is the reason we came. He's going to be joining Kadic. He's a transfer student from America."

Mr. Delmas: "Ok. What is your name boy?"

Chad: "Umm. Chad. Chad Rains."

Mr. Delmas: "Ok Chad. What grade are you in?"

Chad: "9th grade sir."

Mr. Delmas: as he writes this down "Ok. Now we just need to get you a room."

Chad: as Mr. Delmas starts flipping through a rather large records book "If it's ok with you sir, I would like to room with Jeremie."

Mr. Delmas: as he looks up from the book "If it's ok with Jeremie, its fine with me."

Jeremie: "Sure. I wouldn't mind."

Mr. Delmas: "Then it's settled. Welcome to Kadic, Mr. Rains. I will walk you two out."

Chad: "Thank you sir."

_Mr. Delmas gets up and grabs his briefcase and follows Jeremie and Chad out the door. Just as they make it outside, Mr. Delmas stops them._

Mr. Delmas: "Oh. Mr. Rains. Meet me in my office first thing Monday morning. I will give you your schedule and necessary materials."

Chad: "Will do sir."

_As Mr. Delmas walks off, Jeremie and Chad proceed to the center of the courtyard again where they meet up with the rest of the group whom are still sitting on the sole bench in the center of the courtyard._

Yumi: "So did you get signed up?"

Chad: "Yep. And I am rooming with Jeremie."

Aelita: "Did you find out how Chad got here?"

Jeremie: "Oh. I almost forgot about that. Good news is that it wasn't Odd's doing. XANA modified the materialization program before you deactivated the tower. Bad news is that I don't know what modifications he made so it may very well take a few months at the least to find a way to send Chad back to his own universe."

Odd: "Well, at least you have a room here till you can get back. Let's just hope you will get along with Jeremie."

Chad: smiles "You might be surprised."


	4. Chapter 4: Surprising Revelations

Chapter 4: "Surprising Revelations"

_We flash forward to next Monday. Chad has already received his schedule and materials. The group is once again meeting outside the school in the courtyard. As we move in on the group, we see Jeremie and Chad sitting on the bench with Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd standing behind them looking over their shoulders. Chad has his laptop open and is showing some photos of his world to the rest of the gang. Some of these photos include those of Chad's house, his car, and some scenic photos of some forests around his home. Soon enough, the bell rings and the gang starts heading towards the school. Chad simply closes his laptop, drops it into his backpack, and gets up and joins the gang._

Jeremie: "So where is your first class Chad?"

Chad: "I have history with Mr. Fumet."

Yumi: "Oh really? That's the same class I have."

_We next see the gang in a hallway in the school building. Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremie break off and enter a nearby classroom. Yumi and Chad continue off towards their class. Just then a teacher walks up to them._

Teacher: "Hello there. I haven't seen you before. What is your name?"

Chad: "Chad Rains. I'm a transfer student from America."

Teacher: "Go ahead to class Yumi."

_Yumi winks back to Chad as she continues towards class. Shortly after, the teacher and Chad head in the same direction._

Teacher: "Do you need any help finding your class?"

Chad: "My first class is history with Mr. Fumet."

Teacher: "What a coincidence. I'm Mr. Fumet. I will introduce you to the class."

_Next we take Yumi's point of view as she is sitting at a desk in the classroom staring at the door. Soon Mr. Fumet walks in with Chad behind him._

Mr. Fumet: "Good morning class. I would like to introduce you to our newest transfer student, Chad Rains. He came here from America."

_We now take a view form behind Mr. Fumet and Chad looking out towards the class_

Mr. Fumet: "Feel free to choose your own seat Mr. Rains."

_Chad then looks over at Yumi who is patting the chair next to hers which is currently empty. Chad proceeds this way and as he sits down, he props his backpack up against the leg of the desk. At this point, Mr. Fumet starts his lectures for the day._

Yumi: "So Chad, you aren't really 14 are you?"

Chad: "How could you tell?"

Yumi: "You seem too tall to be 14 years old. Really, how old are you?"

Chad: whispers "I don't really want it to get out, but I'm really 18 years old. And I have done graduated High School already. I just figured that while I was here, I could take the easy route and start over in High school. This also allows me to stay close to you guys."

Yumi: "That explains it. So what else should I know about you?"

Mr. Fumet: "Is there something you would like to share with the class, Yumi?"

Yumi: "No Mr. Fumet."

Mr. Fumet: "Very well then."

Chad: as Mr. Fumet continues his lecture "I will let you all know more after class today."

_Classes are now over. We are now outside where we see the younger members of the group (Ulrich, Aelita, Odd, and Jeremie) hanging out on the same bench as before. We see Ulrich closely staring at the school's main entrance where we now see Chad and Yumi walking out together. Chad is carrying his backpack over his left shoulder and Yumi is carrying her stack of books close to her chest. Both are standing fairly close to each other and can be seen chatting about as they walk towards the rest of the group._

Ulrich: "Hmm."

Odd: stares down at Ulrich "What is it this time Mr. Grumpy Gills?"

Ulrich: "It's Chad. Are you sure you didn't materialize him here just to torture me?"

Odd: "Oh sure. I would seriously know how to materialize someone from another universe let alone safely materialize you and Yumi."

_At that moment, Ulrich quickly glances up at Odd and gives him a demeaning stare. He turns back around just as Chad and Yumi stop in front of them. Everyone just stands there quiet for a second then Yumi jabs Chad in the side._

Chad: "Oh. I forgot that I wanted to tell you all the truth about me. But I can't do it here. Let's go back t our room and I can explain everything."

_Back in Jeremie and Chad's room now. We see Jeremie the first one to enter, followed by Aelita, Chad, Yumi, Ulrich, and finally Odd. Jeremie proceeds to sit at the computer chair, Chad on his bed, Yumi next to him, Aelita on the bed on the other side of the room, and Ulrich and Odd stand propped against the now close door._

Chad: "Lets just get this out right now. I am not really a 9th grader. Actually, I'm 18 years old and am technically in college. The only real reason I faked being a 9th grader here at Kadic is to stay closer to you guys. Otherwise I would probably be forced to find a college around here to go to and it would be really difficult to stay in touch then."

Jeremie: "So that explains why you are so tall."

Yumi: "That's the same reason I asked. Chad sticks out like a sore thumb in class."

Ulrich: "So Chad. If that IS you real name. What's going on between you and Yumi?"

Yumi: "Ulrich!"

Chad: "No Yumi, I can answer this one. Ulrich, there is nothing going on between us. We are in the same classes together and I'm in with your group now so we are obviously going to be close. I'm merely getting to know her as a friend, nothing more."

Ulrich: "Whatever. I still don't believe a word you are saying."

Chad: "I'm also way too old to have any kind of relationship with Yumi. If I did, it would just be way too weird even for me. There is a 4 year age difference here."

Ulrich: "There is just one problem with all of this: You have no proof!"

Chad: "Oh yeah?"

_Chad then realizes something. He fishes into his back jeans pocket and pulls out a black fabric wallet. Inside that wallet is Chad's driver's license. He hands it over to Ulrich who then meticulously scans it over. He then throws it over to Chad who barely catches it._

Ulrich: as Chad places the wallet back into his pocket "Whatever. I'm still keeping a close eye on you."

Yumi: "I can't believe you Ulrich! Chad is just a friend! Get over it!"

_Yumi then quickly gets up, shoves Odd and Ulrich out of the way, opens the door, leaves, and slams the door closed behind her._

Ulrich: "Yumi!"

_Just then, Ulrich quickly exits the room following Yumi._

Aelita: "What was that all about?"

Chad: "I've seen it before. Ulrich is too overprotective of Yumi yet he won't say anything to her."

Odd: "You hit the nail on the head there. So you have a driver's license. Do you also have a car?"

Chad: "Of course. You know when I was showing you guys those photos this morning? The blue car I showed you was mine."

Jeremie: "That was yours? That's a nice car."

Chad: after a moment of silence "So what do you guys do for fun around here?"

Odd: "First things first. We need to get you some new threads. You seriously stick out like a sore thumb around here."

Chad: "What's wrong with these clothes?"

Odd: "You look like an old grumpy business man."

Chad: "And that's a bad thing?"

Odd: "You are supposed to be 14 years old. Yes, that's a bad thing. So what do you say we all take you out to go shopping for new clothes?"

Jeremie: "I can't. I'm going to stay here and continue my research on Aelita's antivirus."

Aelita: "I'm going to go see where Yumi and Ulrich went."

Chad: "Be careful. I've seen how Ulrich can get when he becomes overprotective of Yumi."

Aelita: "I will keep that in mind."

Odd: as Aelita leaves the room. "So I guess that means just me and you, huh?"

Chad: "Guess so. Lead the way. You know where we are going."

_Odd leaves the room first. Chad just grabs his laptop and follows Odd._


	5. Chapter 5: Extreme Makeover Sort of

Chapter 5: "Extreme Makeover!...Sort of."

_The first view we see in this chapter is out deep in the forest where we see Yumi in the distance, alone, sitting at the base of a tree, sobbing. We switch views to the opposite side of Yumi and now look off towards the school where we see Ulrich in the distance, running towards Yumi. Yumi spots him out the corner of her eye and quickly wipes away the tears running down her cheek. Just then, Ulrich walks up and stops in front of Yumi, out of breath._

Ulrich: "What's wrong? What did I do?"

Yumi: quickly stands up "You sounded just like my father! Interrogating everyone I get involved with!"

Ulrich: shocked "I…didn't realize. It's just that after the situations with Theo and William in the past, I get leery of newcomers. I…I…don't ever…want anything…to come between us."

Yumi: "Oh Ulrich!"

_She then leaps into Ulrich's arms and starts hugging him passionately. Just then, we spot Aelita in the distance running over. As the 2 notice this, they separate._

Aelita: "Are you two okay?"

Yumi: "Yeah. We sorted it all out."

Ulrich: "Where is Chad? I want to apologize for what happened earlier."

Aelita: "He left with Odd to go shopping for clothes."

Yumi: "You really let him go alone with Odd?"

Aelita: "Oh. I'm sure he'll be fine."

_The next scene is in a clothing store somewhere. We zoom in on a dressing room with Odd propped up against the wall just outside._

Odd: "Are you almost done in there? I would ask if you fell in, but there is no toilet in there."

Chad: "Haha. Very funny."

_After a few moments, the dressing room door opens and out comes Chad. He is now wearing a long sleeved blue turtle-neck shirt, tan cargo shorts, and white tennis-shoes. He is also carrying a dark grey carry bag similar to Jeremie's._

Odd: "You call that an improvement?"

Chad: "Considering that we found these misplaced in the teen section of the store, yes. Besides, I think they look cool. Remember, I'm 18, not 28."

Odd: "So you are really going to stick with that outfit?"

Chad: "Yeah. Why not?"

Odd: "Ok. I can't really stop you I guess."

_Next we see the two leave the department store and get on a bus that is conveniently stopped at the bus stop in front of the store._

_Our next view is in Jeremie and Chad's room. Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi are already there. Jeremie is still at work on his computer, Aelita is sitting on the edge of Chad's bed, reading a book, Ulrich and Yumi are sitting next to each other on Jeremie's bed talking to each other. Next we see the door open and Odd is the first to enter and after a few moments, Chad enters. At this point, Jeremie stops his work and swivels around in his chair. Aelita closes the book she was reading and turns her attention towards Odd and Chad. Yumi and Ulrich turn their attention as well._

Chad: "So how do I look?"

Yumi: "You look good. A nice change from what you were wearing before."

Aelita: "You look awfully familiar. I can't really put my finger on it."

_Jeremie now stands up and walks up towards Chad as he scans him over._

All (but Chad and Jeremie): "Ahem."

Jeremie: "What?"

Aelita: "I see the resemblance now."

Chad: "What is it?"

Ulrich: "You and Jeremie look like twins."

Yumi: "Just Chad is much taller."

Aelita: "And their hair color is different."

Ulrich: "Definitely!"

_Both Chad and Jeremie scan each other over. They step back a few paces and finally notice the resemblance._

Ulrich: "Oh Chad. I want to-"

Odd: "We all better get going. Dinner time, and tonight is spaghetti and meatballs!"

Chad: "Later Ulrich. I'm starving!"

Odd: "Yeah. Let's get down there before they run out of meatballs."

Chad: "After You."

_Chad quickly stands up, grabs his carry bag and lobs the strap over his shoulder. He then follows Odd out the door. Both of them proceed to run down the hallway while everyone holds back._

Yumi: "Do you think he could be a clone of Odd as well?"

All: laugh

_Later in the cafeteria, the whole group is found at a table by the window. Facing the window, ordered from the window inwards: on the left side are Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd. On the right side are Chad, Ulrich, and Yumi. We see Odd and Chad pigging out, nearly done with their second helping._

Chad: trying to swallow his food "So what did you want to say to me earlier, Ulrich?"

Ulrich: "Oh. I wanted to...uhm...apologize for what happened earlier. I really shouldn't have been so rough on you. It's just that after what has happened in the past, I get real leery of newcomers."

_Odd and Chad have finished their second helping. Odd gets up._

Odd: "Shall I get you another?"

Chad: "Nah. I'm good."

_Odd continues to take his plate and makes his way towards the cafeteria counter._

Chad: "Oh. Don't think anything of it Ulrich. I completely understand."

Ulrich: "I just wanted to make sure that you heard my side of the story first."

Chad: yawns "Well. It's getting late. I'm heading back. Ill see you all at school tomorrow. Goodnight."

All: "Goodnight."

_Chad gets up. In one hand he grabs his carry bag and lobs the strap over his left shoulder. In the other hand he grabs his empty tray and proceeds towards the cafeteria counter. On the way he passes Odd and bids him Goodnight._

_In our next scene we are back in Jeremie and Chad's room. We see Chad sitting on his bed, Indian style, with the laptop in his lap and headphones on._

Chad: bobs his head to the tune of 'A World Without Danger' "Do Do Do…Do Do Do…"

_The door opens and Jeremie walks in to find Chad still awake and working away on his laptop._

Jeremie: "Figured you would be asleep by the time I got back."

Chad: looks up to see Jeremie and slips off his headphones "What was that?"

Jeremie: "I said I thought you would be sleeping by now."

Chad: "Yeah. Couldn't get any sleep. Have had too much on my mind. By the way, what took you so long?"

Jeremie: as he drops his carry bag on his bed and sits at the computer "I had to check up on something at the factory. Just a false alarm though."

Chad: "Speaking of which, I wanted to show you the outfit I was working on for Lyoko."

_Chad taps a few keys and soon a beep could be heard from Jeremie's computer. Jeremie spins around in his chair and clicks an icon on the bottom of the screen. A character card pops up on the screen, but the camera view has changed to behind Jeremie so we can't yet see the design on screen._

Jeremie: "You did this in the short time I was gone?"

Chad: "Yep. You Like it?"

Jeremie: "Looks good. So you think you can really be of some help on Lyoko?"

Chad: "Sure. And my weapon will be something to see, I assure you."

Jeremie: "I bet."

Chad: yawns "Well, I'm gonna try to get some sleep now. See you in the morning."

_Jeremie is still working on the computer. Meanwhile, Chad closes his laptop, removes his headphones, and puts them down at the foot of the bed in the corner. He then slips under the covers and proceeds to fall asleep._

Jeremie: "Goodnight."


	6. Chapter 6: A Terribly White Christmas

Chapter 6: "A Terribly White Christmas"

_The current time is about a week later. It's the beginning of December. This year, France is having a warm winter with temperatures up in the 50's and absolutely no snow. We find our first view back in Jeremie and Chad's room. It's a Saturday and both are busy at their computers. All of a sudden we hear a knock at the door. The two look up._

Chad: "Who is it?"

Odd: outside "Its XANA and I want to eat your brains!"

Chad: giggles "Come in."

_The door opens and Odd and Aelita are the first to enter. Behind them are Ulrich and Yumi carrying a fairly decent sized box._

Jeremie: "What's going on?"

Yumi: "Its Christmas time silly. And your room is the biggest and cleanest compared to Odd and Ulrich's, so we figured we'd set up the tree in your room."

Jeremie: "But where are you going to put it? There isn't enough room for a huge tree."

Ulrich: "It's not that big. It should fit over in that corner, no problem."

_Ulrich proceeds to point to the corner at the foot of Chad's bed._

_Later that evening, the tree is finally decorated. Just as Ulrich mentioned earlier, the tree is not very big at all. It is barely any taller than Jeremie or Aelita. The whole group is now hovering around the tree, looking at the work they did._

Chad: "Looks nice. But where did you find all these cute decorations?"

Yumi: "They were old decorations my parents were going to throw out."

Chad: "Well, I think it looks nice. Thank You."

_They all look around at each other with blank stares._

Ulrich: "You do know that we are going home for the holiday's today, right?"

Chad: "Yeah."

Yumi: "If there is anything you need, just call me. I live just down the road."

Chad: "Ill make sure to do that. Thanks."

_Chad smiles. Everyone except Jeremie get ready to leave the room."_

Ulrich: "I guess we should start packing. Our parents are going to be picking us up in a few hours. I guess we will see you after vacation, Chad."

Chad: "Wish your family Happy Holiday's for me."

_The group smiles as Chad waves them off. Meanwhile, Jeremie is busy packing his things._

Chad: "So where is Aelita staying?"

Jeremie: "With Yumi. It seemed appropriate at the time."

Chad: "Oh. Ok."

Jeremie: "What's wrong?"

Chad: "Oh. It's just that this time of year is very big for our family. It's really the only time our family ever gets together out of the whole year."

Jeremie: "I'm sorry, but I am going as fast as I can to find out how to get you back home."

Chad: "Oh. I understand. I guess I'm just a tad homesick is all."

_There are a few moments of silence. Then Chad gets up._

Chad: "Do you need any help getting packed?"

_A few hours later, Jeremie is all packed and ready to go. A knock comes at the door and then a voice could be heard from outside._

Person: "Jeremie?"

Jeremie: "Dad? Come In."

_The door opens to reveal Jeremies dad who apparently has come to pick up Jeremie. He enters the room and notices Chad sitting there._

Jeremie: "Dad, I would like you to meet Chad. He was the roommate I told you about before."

J's Dad: shakes hands with Chad "Hello Chad. Glad to meet you. Jeremie has told me so much about you."

Chad: "Likewise."

J's Dad: "So are you all ready to go, son?"

Jeremie: "Yep."

J's Dad: "Well, we better get going. I left your mother in the car. You know how restless she can get sitting still. Once again, it was nice meeting you Chad."

Chad: "Same here. And Happy Holidays!"

_On that note, Jeremie and his dad leave the room and Jeremie pulls the door closed behind him. After a few moments, Chad sits back down on the bed, Indian style. He snatches his laptop from the end of the bed and slips on the headphones that are still connected to the machine. With the laptop now open, Chad opens up a folder located on the desktop titled 'pics'. The files that are in there show up in slideshow form in front of him. We see these pictures show Chad with his family. They all seem very happy together. We get a close-up shot of Chad and notice that some tears are welling up as he flips through each picture. He slams his laptop shut and throws it and the headphones to the corner of his bed. At this point he slams his head down against the pillow and sobs to himself. After a while, he cries himself to sleep._

_After an unknown amount of time, Chad is awoken by a knock at the door._

Aelita: "Hello? Jeremie?"

Chad: "Huh? No, it's Chad."

Aelita: "May I come in?"

Chad: "Sure."

_Aelita opens the door just wide enough to creep inside. She softly closes the door behind her and sits on the bed opposite of Chad's._

Aelita: "Are you ok? I heard you crying in here."

Chad: "Oh."

_He gets up and wipes the tears from his eyes_

Chad: "I guess I'm just a little homesick is all."

Aelita: "Are you sure you don't want to come stay at Yumi's house during the break? I'm sure the Ishiyama's wouldn't mind."

Chad: "No. I'm fine. It's thoughtful of you though. I appreciate it."

Aelita: "Well, remember that if you need anything, you can call me or Yumi."

Chad: "Ok."

_Aelita gets up and leaves the room. After a few moments, Chad gets up and looks out the window at all the cars leaving school grounds as the kids head home for the holidays. As the last of the cars leave, Chad lies back down on the bed and tries to get some sleep._

_Later he is awoken by the loud howling of wind at the window. He wipes the sleep from his eyes and glances at his watch. It is 3 in the morning. He looks outside the window and notices that there is a terrible blizzard happening outside. Dumbfounded, he gets on Jeremies computer and pulls up the news broadcast._

Meteorologist: "This storm was really unexpected to say the least. Up until a few minutes ago, the radar was dry as a bone. Now we have a fairly dense snowstorm on our hands. Due to the wind gusts and the continuing drop in temperature, we are advising that everyone stay indoors until this storm passes…"

_All of a sudden, Chad hears a beeping noise coming from his laptop. He scoots the chair over to his bed and grabs the laptop and headphones. He opens the laptop to see he is getting a call from Jeremie. Chad slips on the headphones and slides down the attached microphone._

Chad: "Jeremie? What's going on?"

Jeremie: "I just called to make sure you are alright."

Chad: "Yeah. I'm fine. But did you see this storm? The weatherman said it literally came out of nowhere. Do you think this is XANA's doing?"

Jeremie: "I don't think so, but the super scan was giving me a lot of false alarms earlier. But what really puzzles me is that if it is XANA, he has tried this kind of attack before and failed. Why try it again?"

Chad: "Maybe because he's got this holiday vacation at his advantage?"

Jeremie: "How so?"

Chad: "Everyone in the group is nowhere near the school, let alone the factory, except for me, Yumi, and Aelita."

Jeremie: "But what are we supposed to do? It's too far for me to walk and I obviously can't get my parents to drive me there at 3 in the morning for some arbitrary reason. Especially in this weather."

Chad: "Ill think of something. Meanwhile, Ill try contacting the others."

_Soon the phone application on screen closes. Chad closes his laptop and slides it in his carry bag while keeping the headphones on. But he realizes that he's going to need some warm clothing so he slips of his headphones and puts them and his carry bag on the bed. He digs through the dresser and the closet but can only find clothing for someone of Jeremie's stature. Empty handed, he picks up his carry bag once again and slips the headphones back on and exits the room._

_Outside the dorms we watch as Chad leaves the building and makes his way towards the school. Due to not having any heavy clothing on, he is forced to use his carry bag as protection against the blowing snow. Meanwhile, we hear him speak a command into the microphone:_

Chad: "Call Ulrich!"

Computer: "Dialing…RING…RING…"

Ulrich: "Hello?"

Chad: "Hi Ulrich. It's me, Chad."

Ulrich: "Where are you? I can barely hear you."

Chad: "I'm outside in this nasty weather. I'm trying to get over to the school, but even that seems to be difficult. Listen to me: Jeremie thinks this may be a XANA attack. Do whatever you can to get to the factory. I also need you to contact Odd, Yumi, and Aelita for me."

Ulrich: "Ok. Be Careful."

_On that note, Chad had made it under the arches at the school and is doing everything in his power to stay huddled to the wall and make it into the building. Soon enough he makes it inside and starts running in the general direction of the principal's office._

_From inside the office, we still see Mr. Delmas there apparently watching the news on a small portable television. After a few moments, the door opens and we see Chad enter._

Mr. Delmas: "Mr. Rains? What are you doing here?"

Chad: "This may seem strange Mr. Delmas, but I need to borrow your car. It's an emergency."

Mr. Delmas: "Well, my keys are hanging on the hook behind you, but what's going on?"

Chad: "I'm sorry Mr. Delmas, I will explain it all later."

_Chad quickly turns around, snatches the key's off the hook and leaves the room, closing the door behind him._

_Outside: Once again, Chad is trying his best to barricade himself from the cold while trying to locate Mr. Delmas's car._

Chad: mumbling under his breath "Would have helped if I had asked him what car he drove."

_Then he notices the remote start keychain. He looks out into the parking lot as he presses the start button. In the distance he hears an engine roar to life and a moment afterwards, a set of headlights. As he sees this, he quickly runs in that general direction. As he gets within a few paces of the car, he presses the unlock button and quickly tries to open the driver's door. As we look at the vehicle, it has a large resemblance to a Jeep Cherokee. He quickly opens the door and climbs in._

_Meanwhile, back at the Ishiyama household, we see Yumi, her parents, and Aelita sharing the couch as they watch the news as the updates come in about the weather. Soon enough, Yumi's phone rings._

Yumi: "Hello? Ulrich? What's going on?"

Ulrich: "I don't have a lot of time to explain. All I know is that Jeremie thinks this weather is all one of XANA's attacks and we need to get to the factory ASAP."

Yumi: "Ok, but its going to be pretty difficult to get out without my parents finding out."

Ulrich: "Why? Aren't they asleep?"

Yumi: "No. We are all awake watching the news about this weather. Anyways, I will figure something out. I will be there soon."

_The call ends and she slips the phone back into her pocket._

Yumi: whispering "Aelita. We have a situation. It's XANA."

Aelita: "What?"

Yumi: "Just follow my lead."

_Yumi proceeds to get up and makes a nice loud yawn in front of everyone._

Yumi: "Well, I think I'm going to go back to bed now."

Aelita: "Me too. I am very tired. Goodnight Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama."

Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama: "Goodnight."

_The two girls head up to Yumi's room. But instead of heading off to bed, Yumi grabs some heavy clothes out of her closet and motions Aelita to put some on. After the two have bundled up, they proceed to sneak out the bedroom window. Yumi goes first, with Aelita clumsily slip-sliding out the window."_

Aelita: "Ahh!"

_Yumi just barely catches Aelita and sets her back on solid ground._

Aelita: "Thanks."

Yumi: "Don't mention it. We need to get to the factory, now!"

_Back at the school parking lot, we meet back up with Chad. We are in Mr. Delmas's Jeep. Interior lights are on, Chad is trying to warm himself against the heater vents, and the radio is currently tuned to a local station which is currently covering the weather reports._

Radio meteorologist: "It appears as if there is no end in sight for this storm. For whatever reason, it has come to a dead stop over Paris, France and the temperature is continuing to drop at an alarming rate. Here at the studio we are currently reading 15 degrees Fahrenheit and dropping. This does NOT include the wind chill."

_Chad turns off the radio and prepares to drive off. Before he does, he pulls out his laptop, opens it up, and sets it on the passenger seat. Once that is done, he puts the vehicle in drive and slowly pulls out._

Chad: "Call Yumi."

Computer: "Dialing…RING…RING…"

Yumi: "Hello?"

Chad: "Yumi! Where are you?"

Yumi: "Just outside my house. And I've got Aelita with me."

Chad: "Stay right there. I will come by and pick you up."

Yumi: "What?"

_But before they could exchange any more communication, the call was disconnected. Chad checks over at his laptop and the phone dialer reads "NO SIGNAL"_

Chad: "Oh great. What a perfect time to lose phone service."

_Chad continues to drive off down the road. As he notices the low visibility, he fishes around for the fog lights and high beams. Meanwhile, the windshield wipers are going full blast and the heater is loud enough to wake the dead. Chad watches out the windshield and tries to make heads or tails of the street signs. But he soon notices a few figures up ahead. As he spots the house they are standing by, he realizes they are Yumi and Aelita. He slowly creeps to a halt by the sidewalk. Yumi and Aelita hurriedly climb into the rear seat. Chad continues to drive off._

Yumi: "I couldn't understand you over the phone. What's going on?"

Chad: "Jeremie thinks this is all a XANA attack. So right now, we all need to get to the factory. Speaking of which, where was Ulrich staying at?"

Yumi: "He was staying at his Aunt's house across town. But it's nearby the factory so he should already be there. What about Jeremie? Where is he?"

Chad: "I was gonna ask you the same thing. Where was Jeremie at?"

Aelita: "His parent's house is pretty far. Somewhere up in the hills."

Chad: "And he was gonna try to walk THAT far! He's going to get himself killed!"

_Chad quickly slams the brakes which cause the vehicle to slide a good distance before grinding to a halt. The vehicle makes a U-turn and they head in the opposite direction towards Jeremie's house._

_We head back to Jeremie's house now. In the living room, we see Mr. and Mrs. Belpois asleep on the couch along with nothing but static on the television. Meanwhile, Jeremie tiptoes out the front door with nothing on but his usual school outfit. He proceeds to walk down the side of the road while rubbing his arms, trying to keep warm._

_Back in the Jeep, Chad has turned the radio back on. Once again, the latest breaking news comes on._

Radio Meteorologist: "What a strange turn of events we have here. The storm has suddenly picked up speed and is slowly heading in the direction of the mountains. Our current temperature here at the studios is 10 below. Stay bundled up out there."

_Chad turns off the radio._

Aelita: "Oh my. And Jeremie is out in this. We need to find him fast before he freezes to death."

_Back at the factory, we see Ulrich and Odd all bundled up and now entering the elevator to the lower levels. During his ride, Ulrich tries to reach the others, but his mobile reads "NO SIGNAL" as well._

Ulrich: "Isn't that just great."

_The elevator reaches the main control room. But there is no one there. Ulrich and Odd decide to camp out there and wait for the others._

_Meanwhile, back in the Jeep, the 3 are making their way up the mountain road towards Jeremie's house. Soon they spot a figure in the road all covered in snow. Chad stops near the figure to get a closer look. Chad climbs out and soon notices it is Jeremie. He is covered in snow and is frostbitten all over. The rims of his glasses are totally white from the accumulated frost._

Aelita: inside the vehicle "Jeremie!"

_Aelita quickly rushes out to help._

Chad: "Help me get him into the passenger seat."

_Between of Chad and Aelita, they manage to coax Jeremie into the passenger seat. Chad climbs back into the driver's seat and Aelita back into the back seat with Yumi._

Aelita: "Jeremie. Jeremie, are you alright?"

Jeremie: weak and groggy "Ae..Aelita?"

Aelita: "Jeremie. I'm here. You're going to be fine."

Chad: "I'm going to take us all to the factory. Ulrich should already be there."

_Back in the factory, Ulrich and Odd are half asleep on the floor of the control room. But they are soon wide awake as they hear a strange, loud noise from below. After a few moments, we can hear the elevator creaking up the shaft._

Ulrich: "What the?"

_Later we see the Jeep approaching the bridge to the factory._

Yumi: "Stop! I see something ahead…Is that Ulrich?"

_Chad strains to see what is ahead of them. He sees the form of a large sphere. Then the sphere splits in two and the halves spread apart._

Chad: "A Megatank?"

All: "A What!"

Chad: "Hang On!"

_Chad hurriedly shifts into reverse and jams the accelerator. Initially the vehicle doesn't get any traction, but soon the tires dig below the snow and ice and finally grab asphalt and lunge the car backwards. As the car leaves the bridge, it veers off to the side. Just in time too as we see the large laser from the megatank fire down the bridge. The megatank then closes and rolls down the bridge._

Chad: "I've got an idea."

_Chad shifts the vehicle into neutral and starts revving the engine. Soon the megatank stops in front of them, turns to face them, and opens up. At this point, Chad shifts the Jeep back into drive and jams the accelerator once again._

Chad: "YAAAH!"

_The Jeep makes contact with the megatank and proceeds to roll the megatank down the edge of the river like a rolling pin. Chad then sets the cruise control._

Chad: "Ok. It's set. On my count, we jump…1…2…3!"

_The group then piles out and watches as the Jeep and the megatank veer off into the river with a large SPLASH!_

Yumi: "I swear, you seem more like Odd every day. That was totally reckless!"

Chad: "It worked though, didn't it?"

Yumi: "I guess."

Jeremie: "We need to get to the factory and quick!"

_The four huddle together as they strain to make it back towards the factory. As they make it near the entrance, enough snow has barreled out of the sky to where our group is now covered. They shake off the snow and proceed to swing down the ropes hanging from the rafters. When they make it to solid ground once again, they meet up with Ulrich and Odd who are now waiting for them in the elevator._

Ulrich: "What took you?"

Yumi: "Jeremie wasn't even in town."

Jeremie: "My parents have a vacation home up in the mountains that we go to every Christmas."

_As they finish up the conversation, our heroes make their way into the freight elevator and continue their way down to the lab. Once the elevator reaches the control room, Chad and Jeremie step out. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continues to the scanner room. _

_Jeremie climbs in the chair and soon it rotates around the holo-map to where the console is currently positioned. Meanwhile, Chad walks over and stands behind Jeremie and watches him work._

Jeremie: "Ok. The tower is in the polar region. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich: I will send you three first."

_Down in the scanner room, we watch as the three step into the scanners while Aelita stays back by the elevator._

_Back in the control room, we watch as Jeremie proceeds with the all too common virtualization process._

Jeremie: "Transfer Yumi, Transfer Odd, Transfer Ulrich…Scanner Yumi, Scanner Odd, Scanner Ulrich…Virtualization!"

_As the three arrive on Lyoko, Aelita enters a vacant scanner and awaits Jeremie's command._

Jeremie: "Aelita is on her way…Transfer Aelita…Scanner Aelita…Virtualization."

_Meanwhile, back in the control room, we see Chad has his head slumped over on the headrest of the computer chair as he eagerly watches Jeremie work._

Jeremie: "The tower is about 40 degrees north of your position. I'm virtualizing your vehicles now."

_As Jeremie ferociously types away, we see the vehicles pop up on the screen. Meanwhile, back on Lyoko, the vehicles have fully materialized. Odd hops on the overboard in his usual catlike fashion. Ulrich leaps onto the overbike, and Yumi and Aelita simply step up onto the overwing. With that, they were off. But before they could even make it a few hundred feet towards the tower, a megatank had rolled in fast from behind and was gaining on them ever so closer._

Jeremie: "You have two megatanks closing in. 1 behind you and 1 in front."

Odd: "Nice warning. But I only see the one behind us. Where is the other one?"

Aelita: "There!"

_Then Aelita points at a megtank rolling from behind a fairly large pillar ahead of them. It stops, opens, and gets ready to fire on our heroes. But just before the megatank has a chance to fire on the group, they all dodge it just in time and the laser blast ironically destroys the other megatank that was previously following them._

Odd: "Wow. XANA must really be slipping today. He destroyed one of his own monsters."

Yumi: "Yeah. But we still have one more to take care of."

Jeremie: "Make that two."

_Up ahead, the group notices another megatank in front of the activated tower, ready to fire._

Odd: "Hold back. Ill take this one."

_Then Odd goes flying in towards the megatank near the tower. The camera view switches back and forth between Odd and the megatank as they simultaneously prepare to fire. Odd shoots a laser arrow first, but it is soon blocked by the megatanks blast which then hits Odd and forcefully de-virtualizes him and the overboard._

_We meet Odd back in the lab as he emerges from the elevator in the control room. As he makes his way over to Jeremie and Chad, we see Jeremie is, of course, still at the console and keeping an eye on the situation. We see Chad sitting on the edge of the holomap device and working on his laptop which is now in a Tablet mode. Chad then looks up to see Odd returning._

Jeremie: "You still have two megatanks on your hands."

Yumi: "Make a run for it Aelita. Ulrich and I will take care of the megatanks."

_Back on Lyoko, we see Aelita jump off the overwing while it's still in motion. She lands rough on her knees, but quickly gets up and starts running towards the tower. Meanwhile, Yumi handles the nearby megatank while Ulrich heads towards the megatank placed by the activated tower._

Chad: "Do you think you can virtualize the overboard again?"

Jeremie: "With time, but why?"

Chad: "I'm going in just in case."

_As he says this, he flips his laptop back into a standard laptop mode, closes it, and jogs off to the elevator. Chad soon makes it to the scanner room and is about to enter a vacant scanner, but he is interrupted by Jeremie._

Jeremie: "Where is your Lyoko outfit?"

Chad: "Umm. Check my laptop."

_Back in the console room, Jeremie leaps out of the chair and grabs the abandoned laptop which is being propped up against the holomap. He opens the laptop to reveal the file he is looking for right in the middle of the desktop. With a few keystrokes, the player card appears on the super computer console. He closes the laptop and gets back to the console._

Jeremie: "Ok. I've got it. Ready?"

_Back in the scanner room, Chad eyes the scanner and cautiously enters while he nervously awaits what is going to happen._

Chad: "Ready."

Jeremie: "Transfer Chad…Scanner Chad…Virtualization!"

_Moments later, Chad virtualizes on Lyoko and lands rough on his feet. As he stands up, we get a closer look at his Lyoko form. His whole body looks to be covered in neon blue electrical circuits on a dark grey background._

_He finally regains his bearings and gazes around at the strange new world. Soon Jeremie's voice could be heard._

Jeremie: "Yumi and Ulrich are 20 degrees west of you."

Chad: "I see 'em."

_And with that, he runs off. He reaches Yumi just as she finishes off the first megatank._

Yumi: "Need a lift?"

_Chad immediately jumps onto the Overwing and grabs hold of Yumi's waist, preparing to move. Both blush for a few moments before taking off. As they near the activated tower, they notice Ulrich still fending off the remaining megatank while Aelita holds back behind a nearby ice formation._

Chad: "Hold on. I'll take this one."

_Chad then jumps off while the overwing is still in motion and lands in the general path of the megatank. The megatank then disregards Ulrich and takes aim on Chad. Our new fighter ignores this and continues with his plan. He holds out his left hand as if he is holding something. A wireframe of a staff-like device appears in his grip. Moments later it fully materializes. The staff appears to be a bright yellow and on the very top is a bright orange orb closely resembling that of a guardian, but in a much smaller form. Inside of this orb is the symbol of Lyoko._

_Meanwhile, the megatank has been charging up for the attack. Before he can do anything, the megatank fires its laser and manages to hit Chad square on. This causes Chad to fly back a good 20 feet and on his back. A short moment later, he is de-virtualized._

_Yumi then flies in on the overwing and proceeds to toss a fan straight at the megatank before it gets a chance to fire again. It hits the target and the megatank violently explodes._

Yumi: "Ok Aelita. Coast is clear."

_Aelita then proceeds to run towards the tower._

_Back on Earth in the scanner room, we see one of the scanner's open. After the steam clears, we see Chad standing up in the scanner. After a few moments, he leans back against the back of the scanner and slides down till he is sitting on the bottom._

Chad: "Ow…"

_Back on Lyoko, Aelita is now ascending to the top level of the tower._

_In the control room, we see Chad emerge from the elevator and slowly walk towards Odd and Jeremie who are currently overlooking the situation on Lyoko._

Chad: as he rubs the back of his head "That was painful. How are Ulrich and Yumi doing?"

Jeremie: "Coast is clear. I don't think a return is necessary this time, do you?"

Chad: "Eh. I think it might be a good idea."

Odd: "Why?"

Chad: "Well…heh…I destroyed Mr. Delmas's car back there."

Odd: "You what!"

Jeremie: "That was Mr. Delmas's car!"

Chad: "Hehe. Oops?"

Jeremie: sighs "Ok. Ill enter the coordinates."

_Jeremie starts typing away at the console as Odd and Chad watch over his shoulder._

Jeremie: as he strikes the enter key "Return to the past now!"

_Back in Jeremie's room, we see the group has finished putting the tree up for the second time._

Yumi: "Come on Chad, you are going to come stay with us. I've already talked it over with my parents and they said it was okay."

Chad: in a kind of cheery tone "Oh, ok. I guess it wouldn't hurt."

Yumi: "Now that's more like it. I will come by and get you in about an hour."

Ulrich: "I also have to get going. My parents are going to be picking me up anytime now."

_Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd all exit the room leaving only Jeremie and Chad. Jeremie is currently packing up his things while Chad is working on his laptop._

Chad: "I'll be right back. I have to go cover something with the principal."

_Chad quickly gets up and exits the room, taking his laptop with him._

_A short while later, we return to the room just as Chad returns. It appears as if Jeremie has already left. Chad proceeds to pack up what few belongings he has while he waits for Yumi. As he finishes packing up, Yumi enters the room._

Yumi: "You ready?"

Chad: "Yep."

_Chad straps the carry bag over his shoulder and picks up the box he packed and proceeds to follow Yumi out the door. On his way out, he shuts off the light and closes the door._

_Back at the Ishiyama household, it is now Christmas morning. Chad is sitting with Yumi's parents on the couch while Yumi and Aelita are kneeling by the tree, ready to unwrap gifts._

_Yumi then reads the tag on one of the gifts. It reads "To Yumi, from Ulrich." She pulls it from under the tree and reads the tag on another fairly small package. It reads "To Aelita, from Jeremie._

Yumi: "Here Aelita. This one is for you."

_Yumi then passes the gift over to Aelita. The two then start unwrapping their gifts. Yumi's gift is the latest Subsonics album. Aelita unwraps hers to reveal what looks like a ring box. The two girls look at each other and then Aelita quickly opens the box. Inside the box is a gold locket. She opens it up to find one of the pictures she had taken with Jeremie when she was first materialized._

Aelita: In a quiet tone "Jeremie…"


	7. Chapter 7: Confusion Abound

Chapter 7: "Confusion Abound"

_Our first view is over top Kadic academy. All of the students are now returning from holiday vacation. Next we see our young group hovered around the vending machines in the courtyard. Chad is currently MIA_.

Odd: "So how was everyone's vacation?"

Yumi: "Our's was great. We had lots of fun."

Aelita: "Oh. I almost forgot."

_Out of nowhere, Aelita leaps over to Jeremie and squeezes till he is almost out of breath._

Aelita: "Thank you for the gift Jeremie."

Ulrich: "What gift?"

_She then pulls out the necklace from behind her shirt to reveal a locket dangling at the end. She opens it to show to the rest of the group._

Odd: with a smirk on his face "Hello. Now what do we have here?"

Yumi: "When did you guys take this picture?"

Jeremie: "The first day she was materialized. On the way over to your house we got a little sidetracked."

_In a timely fashion, the school bell can be heard in the distance._

Jeremie: "There's the bell. I think we should get to class now."

_The group then proceeds to walk off towards the school building._

_In Mrs. Hertz's classroom, we see the students starting to enter. As our younger heroes find their seats, they overhear some of the other students talking about Chad. But before they can get a word in on what's going on, Mrs. Hertz enters the room and begins today's lessons._

_Later in the class period after lessons are done, Jeremie attempts to figure out what's going on from one of the other students._

Jeremie: "Psst. What's Chad been up to?"

Student: "You didn't hear? He's teaching the computer class."

Jeremie: "He What!"

Mrs. Hertz: "Jeremie! Quiet down!"

_At that point, the bell rings and all the students leave the classroom._

_Outside the classroom, we see Yumi trotting down the hallway towards the rest of the group._

Yumi: "Did you guys hear about Chad?"

Odd: "Yeah. How did he become a teacher?"

Jeremie: "I don't know, but we all have computer class next. Why don't we ask him?"

_Our next view is from the computer lab facing the door where we see the group entering the room. From this angle we can also see a figure from behind the desk working on a laptop which is sitting on said desk._

_As Chad notices the group walk in, he starts to get up from the desk._

Chad: "Oh...Hi guys. Sorry I couldn't get around to talking to you guys this morning. I was busy getting things settled here."

Ulrich: "What things?"

Chad: "I forgot to mention. Right before we all left for holiday break, I had touched base with Mr. Delmas and he happily gave me the position as student teacher for the computer lab. And no, I didn't tell him anything about the factory or Lyoko. I just mentioned that I was sitting in on the class for a while as a research project and that's why I faked my age."

Jeremie: "Phew! I figured you had given away our secret."

Chad: "Well, class is going to start soon. Better take your seats."

_The group proceeds to take their seats while the rest of the class enters the room and takes their seats._

Chad: "Hello Class. I'm Mr. Rains. I will be your new teacher for the remainder of the school year. You all have had a previous assignment you were working on so go ahead and continue working."

_The students get to work on the computers. Chad starts to walk over to Jeremie's workstation._

Chad: "Jeremie. I want to talk to you in private outside. Class, Ms. Ishiyama will be watching the class till I get back."

_Outside the school in the courtyard…_

Chad: "I have a pressing question for you. Would it be possible to get an internet link to my own world through the super computer?"

Jeremie: "Yeah. But why?"

Chad: "Do you think you could do it now."

Jeremie: "Shouldn't be that difficult with my current research."

Chad: "Good. We should go now."

Jeremie: "But Why?"

Chad: "I have something important I need to take care of. That's all."

_The 2 then run off towards the factory._

_Next, in the control room, we see Jeremie typing away at the super computer while Chad takes his usual seat on the holosphere while working on his laptop. There is currently a wire running from the super computer console to Chad's laptop._

Jeremie: "Ok. Try it now."

_On the laptop screen, we see Chad click on a blue icon in the browser which resembles a XANA icon. Soon enough, a familiar site, Lyoko Freak, appears._

Chad: "Ok. It works. This will just take me a minute or two."

_In the browser, Chad pulls up the profile of 1 'TB3' and clicks the private message button and proceeds to furiously type out a quick message:_

"_Hey. I have an urgent message for you. Don't ask me how it happened, but somehow I am in the CL universe. I have been here for well over a month now and I have since become good friends with Team Lyoko. Like I said, I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that I was in my room watching a CL ep one minute, fell asleep, and awoke in a scanner with Team Lyoko hovering over me. Strange I know, but that's how it happened. I will get back to you later. I have to get back to the school. Ciao!"_

_After that, he clicks the submit button, closes the browser, then his laptop. Then he and Jeremie proceed towards the elevator. Out of nowhere, we see the infamous red XANA icon on the super computer console followed by a specter emerging from the rear. This specter soon targets Chad and takes control of him. Before Jeremie could get away, XANA-Chad grabs Jeremie by his shirt collar and tosses him across the room, knocking him unconscious. Then XANA-Chad heads over to the console and types some commands producing a timer onscreen. He then proceeds towards the elevator._

_Back in the computer lab: Everything seems calm, but then every computer has a large XANA icon on the screen followed by specter's emerging from every machine. Everybody but the remaining member's of Team Lyoko are taken over._

Yumi: "Uh…Oh…"

_Yumi then quickly reaches for her mobile and tries to contact Jeremie, but no answer._

Ulrich: "I think we should get out of here now."

Yumi: "Took the words right out of my mouth."

_The 4 then make a beeline for the door. Outside they try to look for Jeremie and Chad, but they are nowhere to be found. They turn around to see all the XANA-zombies following and keep running towards the factory._

_Our next view is just as the 4 enter the elevator and head down to the lab. As the door opens and the group notices Jeremie unconscious in the corner, Aelita immediately goes running._

Aelita: "Jeremie! Are you alright?"

_The group is now huddled over Jeremie._

Jeremie: groggily "…Aelita?...Chad…XANA has him…"

Aelita: pointing towards the other three "You go. I'll send you in from here until Jeremie wakes up."

_With that note, the three return to the elevator while Aelita makes her way to the console._

Aelita: "Are you ready?"

Ulrich: "We're ready."

Aelita: "Ok. Scanner Ulrich, Scanner Yumi, Scanner Odd…Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Yumi, Transfer Odd…Virtualization!"

_The three have now virtualized on Lyoko in the middle of the desert region._

Yumi: "I don't see Chad anywhere. Can you locate him Aelita?"

Aelita: "No. He's nowhere in Lyoko. That's weird."

Odd: as he points in the distance "But I see the activated tower."

_Back in the lab, Jeremie has woken up and is now standing by Aelita's side._

Jeremie: "You go. I'll be fine."

Aelita: nods

_Aelita hops out of the chair and heads to the elevator while Jeremie hops up in the chair._

Jeremie: "Aelita is on the way guys. I will try and locate Chad."

Aelita: "Ok Jeremie. I'm ready."

Jeremie: "Transfer Aelita…Scanner Aelita…Virtualization!"

_Aelita swiftly arrives on Lyoko next to the rest of the group._

Aelita: waves "Hi."

Yumi: "Jeremie, did you find Chad yet?"

Jeremie: "Not yet. Go take care of the tower first."

Yumi: "If you say so."

_The group starts running towards the activated tower._

Ulrich: "That's weird."

Odd: "What?"

Ulrich: "We usually have monsters attacking us by now. But there's nothing out here."

Yumi: "I say we don't give XANA any chances."

_The group finally reaches the tower. Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi hang back while Aelita enters the tower. We go through the usual animation of Aelita ascending to the console in the tower. Aelita's name appears on the console._

_Back in the lab on Jeremie's screen, the familiar RTTP program with the globe and countdown timer appears._

Jeremie: shocked "What the?"

…_L-Y-O-K-O…_

Jeremie: "Aelita! NO!"

_Then the all too familiar RTTP starts and envelops the surrounding area of the factory._


	8. Chapter 8: A Chapter Without a Name

Chapter 8: "The Chapter without a Name"

_We are back in Chad's bedroom in his own world. Nothing appears to have changed and the previously playing episode of Code Lyoko is still running on the TV. Chad soon wakes up._

Chad: looks around the room "What the? What happened?"

_He looks around the room and soon checks his watch to see that it is still the same day as when he left._

Chad: sighs "It was just a dream."

_He sits up and proceeds to pull his laptop from his backpack. He opens firefox and locates the link to LyokoFreak and quickly find his way to the thread entitle "What are your CL Dreams?". He swiftly clicks the reply button and proceeds to describe his dream:_

_Here's another one for the record books. I just woke up from a very vivid CL dream. It started out with me arriving to the CL universe inside one of the scanners. I quickly joined the group and became a roommate with Jeremie. Pretty much standard stuff with school and all that junk. Christmas break was fun. XANA tried to reproduce the "Cold War" episode but failed of course. That was also my first time on Lyoko. For the rest of the vacation I stayed with Yumi and her parents along with Aelita. After vacation I managed to become the new computer lab teacher. Jeremie somehow got the super computer to allow me to contact TB3 here on the forums. After that was a blur and then I woke up._

_Strange stuff huh?_

_He quickly clicks the submit button and returns to the CL Discussion forum. To his surprise, TB3 happens to be browsing the forum._

_Chad slides over to the computer on his desk and loads up another episode of Code Lyoko. As the episode starts, a beeping could be heard from his laptop. He checks his laptop and it appears as if he has got a new PM on LyokoFreak. He quickly goes to his PM Inbox and quickly notices the subject of the newest unread message:_

"_RE: Important News!"_

_That is the same subject line of the PM he sent TB3 in his dream. He cautiously clicks on the message, afraid of what he is going to read. The message appears on the screen:_

_I'm confused. Was it real or was it a dream? Are you trying to pull my leg or what? You sent me a PM just a few minutes ago telling me you were actually in the CL universe, but now you post a message saying it was nothing more than a dream."_

_What? It was just a dream wasn't it? Or was it?_

…

Author Note's:

Yep. This is the final chapter of this story. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please stay tuned for some more exciting fics coming soon:-)


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